Always Frustrating, Arizona Is

Last night's loss to the 49ers is the kind of thing that makes it hard to trust that these Cardinals aren't like all the crappy Cardinals teams I watched in the past. They have games they should win, and they blow them, and thus they can't be an elite team.

I think that's what bothered me the most about the Titans' loss. They had a chance to make a statement, and they failed. The Titans were on a 5-game winning streak, halfway to fulfilling Chris Johnson's promise that they'd run the table, and Arizona had them - Until they let Vince Young march 99 yards to a game-winning touchdown. Contrast that with what the Colts did the next weekend against the Titans. They took a lead early, and after Nate Washington dropped a sure touchdown pass, took control. They squashed the Titans, as they should, because they're the better team. I'm fully believe they would have done the same to the 49ers had they played them on Monday night.

OK, so the Cardinals aren't in the Colts' league. But still, they're better than the 49ers, or they ought to be, and they didn't show it. The 49ers kicked their asses. The Cardinals had another chance to make a statement, to assert their dominance over the NFC West, and the blew it. Badly. The Cardinals seem to play well when people doubt them, like the game against the Vikings, or in last season's playoffs. When they can't draw on that, because they're favored, they crash. It makes me wonder if I shouldn't root for Green Bay to stomp them the last week of the season, in the hopes it causes people to write them off going into the postseason. They might play with that anger again, and hopefully they'd make it through Round 1. After that, they won't be favored against anyone they're like to play, so they'll still have the "disrespect" card at their disposal.

'Course, they have to take care of business against Detroit and St. Louis, so as to get in the postseason first, for any of that to matter. Maybe I should just be concened with that instead.